In a message dated 3/16/99, [log in to unmask] writes:
 
> May be a little introduction, about your collection, your favorite
>  families, what do you like of this hobbie,
 
Okay!  I'm one of the "younger" collectors (I'm 37).  I started collecting
when I was 14 on the New Jersey shore where I lived most of my life.  My
collection isn't very large and I'm a generalist, which I think is unusual.
It seems that most collectors specialize in at least one or two families.
Even though I don't specialize, I still have my favorites (cowries, cones).
I'm interested in marine and freshwater species and I'm doing my best not to
get into land snails or fossils.  ;-)  Actually, I used to have a really nice
little collection of Cretaceous molluscs found not far from my home in New
Jersey.  I don't remember what I did with it though...
 
I am just returning from a 5-year hiatus from collecting.  My "shell rooms"
were turned into "nurseries" once my kids were born (funny how that happens).
Now I'm returning to the hobby by joining Conch-L and revising/updating my
collection's catalog (luckily I computerized it back in the 1980s so it should
be easy to do).  I'm feeling very "rusty" right now.  It's amazing how much I
have forgotten in 5 years and in terms of invertebrate systematics and
taxonomy a _lot_ can happen in that time.
 
I have my eye on our dining room... we don't use it for dining so maybe I can
have some shell cabinets built and put in there (anybody have any good plans
for building museum style shell cabinets?).  Right now my collection is in
boxes to keep it safe from the kids (they are still much too young to trust
around them though I keep a lot of "craft grade" shells out for them to see
and touch.
 
>  Here we are amateurs (like me), big star collectors, and dealers in
>  conchology, and cientific profesionals on malacology and ecology.
 
Great, I fit right in!  I'm an amateur collector but an aquatic ecologist by
profession.  My specialty is aquatic toxicology though I also studied
systematics and taxonomy in graduate school.  Basically I study the effects of
xenobiotics on aquatic life.  I have done many ecological field surveys in the
New York Bight, NY harbor, many rivers and lakes in the Northeastern US as
well as estuarine studies in the Suisun Bay area of California.  In addition,
I have conducted toxicity testing with some molluscs such as Mercenaria,
Corbicula, Unionids, and Physa as well as fish and other invertebrate species.
 
So you can see that shell collecting for me went from being purely aesthetic,
to one that also includes a lot of the science (systematics, evolution,
ecology, etc).
 
>  Your name is very interesting (please, excuse the personal observation),
>  were do you live ?
 
Well, actually it's a pseudonym... Ankistrodesmus is a species of green algae
that I have used as a test species as well as for feeding Daphnia magna in the
lab.  Plus, I liked the way sounded better than Selenastrum, Isochrysis or
Skeletonema.  :-)
 
I left the Jersey shore 9 years ago and have been landlocked in the middle of
the US (Kansas) ever since.  I do miss the ocean a lot, but I added quite a
few interesting (and non-endangered) species of Kansas freshwater bivalves to
my collection.
 
I'm glad to be here (and back into shell collecting)!
 
GG